1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile digital media production, cloud based data processing, and digital media delivery, and, more specifically, to automatically editing and assembling digital media into digital media programs by processing, analyzing, and ranking device sensor information and viewer provided parameters.
2. Background of the Invention
Evolutionary advances in the capabilities of video capture devices are fueling a new paradigm regarding how personal spectator media is acquired, saved, and shared. These “smart” devices have become pervasive and inexpensive; their video capture capabilities have approached or exceeded the quality levels of single-purpose portable video cameras.
“Smart” devices are deployed with connectivity features that allow them to offload captured audio and/or video (AV) streams. Many are programmable in a limited fashion. Moreover, many of these devices have a collection of sensors providing additional information about location, orientation, and motion of the device. Examples of such “smart” devices include video cameras, cell phones, smart phones, tablets, laptops, and wearable computers, but also may include devices loosely formed by augmenting a video capture device with additional capabilities via attached external packages, such as medical devices, unmanned aerial vehicles (for news gathering or surveillance), inspection robotics, and industrial monitoring equipment.
Applicants have found that collaborations between individuals capturing video segments of an event offer an opportunity for enhanced coverage of the event including an extended time-line, multiple points-of-view of a subject, and/or simultaneous/overlapping coverage of different subjects. Currently collaborations are informal; as the number of collaborators increases so does the burden of oversight by those interested in acquiring access to the recordings to ensure their timely acquisition/dissemination.
Further still, once the original recordings have been acquired, familiarity and skill with one or more digital media editing tools is required to further reduce/aggregate the collected recordings of the event to one or more digital media productions reflecting the editor's interests and preferences. Manually controlled editing systems allow the editor to inspect the recording's audio and video content and choose the best content for any defined time period. This is an artistic and highly subjective process.